'We are going to do everything to make sure that everyone is safe'

“The biggest challenge has been trying to ensure that everybody feels safe and comfortable with the idea of coming back [to school]”, Garrett Farrell, principal of Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, says.

Mr Farrell and his team have had an “exceptionally busy” summer preparing the 600 student school to be “Covid-19 ready”.

“We were here nearly right throughout the summer from the end of last year when we had to sort out the calculated grades then to come back to prepare the school to be Covid-19 ready. It's been a very busy summer but Ms Gallen and I have lots of really good people on our team who work very well together.”

Mr Farrell says that while the preparations are drawing to a close, there is an understandable anxiety about returning to school when the country is still battling the coronvirus and the number of cases are increasing.

“For all the works that we had to do, we received huge support from the Department of Education to do all of those things and we are grateful for that. But it's the mental side of things and not knowing what is ahead that scares people. It's been hard to reconcile the happiness of reopening the school again with the worry about what's coming around the corner.

“At the end of the day, the school is a huge part of the community and we have a huge responsibility to educate but also to protect all our members of the school community whether they're students, staff, parents or grandparents.

“We don't want anyone to be upset about it or worried about it. We know they will be and it's a matter of trying to alleviate that and to reassure everybody that we are going to do absolutely everything to make sure that everyone is safe,” he said.

Many thought that when schools returned, students would divide their time between the classroom and online learning, but the government are committed to full reopening.

“The decision was made to reopen the schools when the cases were at a completely different level. It's a very different landscape now, but it is important for children to be in school. We had anticipated back in the start that the hybrid model might have been the best way to start because it would have been easier to manage. We were thinking everyone would go to school maybe 60pc of the school week,” Mr Farrell says.

“The government and the department want to get everyone back to school and that is necessary for society. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they don't make every effort they are seen as not trying and if they do make every effort some people will say it's too dangerous to get it right.”

Despite the uncertainty of what lies ahead, Mr Farrell says that he and his staff are looking forward to welcoming back their students, including the contingent from Offaly, who will be able to cross the county line now that the lockdown restrictions have been lifted.

Mercy Secondary School enjoys “huge support” from the families of students and the wider community, he says; support that will be needed in the months ahead.

“We are very lucky that we have huge support from our families. They trust us to do what is right. We have had many challenges over the years and if there is one thing we've learned, it is that when things get tough the local community definitely pull together. They stand shoulder to shoulder and work through things. That is a huge bonus for our local school that we have that. We are going to need every bit of it.”